Riding the momentum of a 30-28 thriller, the Bees advanced to a familiar place — the county semifinals — by rolling to a 25-10 victory in the second to sweep McNair in a quarterfinal match at Bayonne High School. With the victory, Pat Longo’s two-time defending county champions also qualified for the upcoming state tournament.

“I thought as a result of us taking the first set in the way that we did, the momentum shifted over and we played very well the rest of the way,” said Longo.

Ahead 24-23 in the first, Bayonne appeared poised to end the set in regulation before the Cougars’ Varun Sharma delivered a clutch block on a spike attempt to prolong the frame.

McNair (13-7) then turned the tables to force two match points on Bayonne, but a block from Alla Abouelkheir and a timely Mediaville kill put the Bees ahead 29-28, when a Cougars net violation sealed the match for Bayonne.

“When you look at the stats, you will only see Joshua with 10 kills, but the timing of them and the digs were important. He was excellent today,” explained Longo.

A kill from Vraj Patel to start the second would give McNair its only lead of the set. A net violation and a put-away from Abouelkheir quickly put Bayonne back in front, 2-1.

“I thought that once we had the momentum back, we were able to clean up our game, make smooth passes and finish off points,” said Mediaville, a senior who is heralded as one of the best players in New Jersey.

The Bees made their move after another net violation made it 7-5. Jeremy Pimentel rattled off nine consecutive service points to enlarge the lead to a double-digit margin. Kills from Mediaville, Abouelkheir and C.J. Semeniak highlighted the Bayonne run.

Semeniak would put together four consecutive service points of his own to put Bayonne up 21-7 in the final stages of the match.

Daniel Bargielski registered one of his two kills in this sequence for the Bees and a Pimentel block would clinch the match several volleys later.

Bayonne will meet a familiar face, arch rival St. Peter’s Prep, in the county semifinals on Thursday. It will be the 13th meeting between the two since 2010, as well as a rematch of a closely contested, two-set Marauders victory on April 3rd.

Longo added: “We challenged ourselves with our schedule, so I’m glad we made it to the state tournament. I’m hoping it will all pay off in the post-season.”